Sunday, 14 March 2010

Here Be Predators

The incredible trailer for Tron: Legacy surprised the hell out of me the other day, so I thought, in light of the release of another new teaser, why not give Predators a shot, too?

On Friday, at the South by Southwest film festival, the movie's producer Robert Rodriguez introduced a few minutes of new footage. Here it is:

I can't say this brief sneak peek sells me on Predators as immediately as last week's trailer made damn sure I wouldn't be missing the Tron sequel come Christmas, but all the same, there's a lot to like here. A snappy sound-bite from Adrian Brody seems to encapsulate all that I understand of the premise behind this franchise reboot: "This planet is a game preserve... and we're the game."

For the most part, the design looks solid. The world, what little we can see of it, looks great, and the future tech seems authentic at first glance - although the unveiling of the new breed of predator leaves me rather cold.

The thing about Predators that most surprises me, however, is the cast. Alongside the aforementioned Adrian Brody we have Lawrence 'CSI Level 2' Fishbourne and the gentleman who was the voice of Venom in Spider-man 3. As Rodriguez says, they "can't compete with Arnold Schwarzenegger," but they're a promising bunch nonetheless. And they've signed on for a reason.

Whether that reason is a massive bag of cash... we'll have to wait and see. I guess it's all up to director Nimrod Antal, whose efforts in the past leave me no more certain what caliber of film to expect - the surprisingly excellent Vacancy bodes well, though his follow-up, Armored was a bit rubbish, really.

Still not at all sure about this one, but I'm hoping for the best. I'd really like to see a good Predator reboot - there's certainly plenty of room for interesting new stories set around that mythology - but at this point, and so close now to its July release, it's just as likely we're looking at another film on the level of Aliens vs. Predator here. That we're only now seeing some footage doesn't bode particularly well, that's for sure.

3 comments:

I just sometimes wish they'd give something new a chance. There must be so many great original scripts out there, new talent, new worlds etc. The last couple of years just seem to be reboots and remakes.

I do like the predator dog design though - reminds me of the groovy-awesome alien toys you could get waaaay back long ago.

I loved Nimrod Antal's Kontroll (loved it) so I'm hoping he'll pull off a good character driver ensemble action-fest! (I have a lot of time for Rodriguez too - maybe himself and Antal will get the best out of each other)

From what I understand, this has been a pet-project for Robert Rodriguez for over ten years, so I know he'll be pulling out all the stops to make it good and appealing to fans. And to keep Nimrod Antal in check, I'm sure.

I dunno, Mister Rodriguez almost never disappoints (save for his silly Spy Kids trilogy).

Contact Details

TSS will gladly accept books, screeners and early builds for potential articles on the blog. Coverage of some sort is likely but not guaranteed. For more information or to request my postal address, email me via this link.